ROYAL
OAK, Mich. -- Last-minute
additions are nothing new to Sean Patrick McGraw. He was added to
the line-up for the Stagecoach Festival in Indio, California last
year. McGraw will join Eric Church and Josh Thompson for a performance
at the Royal Oak Music Theatre on March 20.

He
is a new country singer on Little Engine Records. McGraw made his
national debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live during the summer of
2009. He was also a semi-finalist on TV's Nashville Star.
Last year, McGraw opened up for Toby Keith and Trace Adkins on America's
Toughest Tour. The
new country singer says his musical influences are Dwight Yoakam,
Steve Earle, Dierks Bentley and Brad Paisley.

"It
would have been better being a finalist and a winner, but I'll take
what I can get," McGraw said about his experience on the Nashville
Star competition.

He is hitting
the road hard. The new country singer played 140 concerts in 2007
and over 160 dates in 2009.

"It's
just been getting worse or better depending on how you look at it,"
McGraw said. "We have really good work ethics in my band. You
don't get to the top by sitting around waiting for it. I like to
get out there and play and get a wider audience. We'll all about
being on the road."

His new
album is Long Way From Slowin' Down and it was released
on Nov. 11, 2008.

"My
favorite song is probably 'What I Do,' it's a ballad," he said.
"Artistically, I think it's one of my best songs. 'Cow Tippin'
has been a real crowd pleaser. Audiences seem to love that wherever
we go. To write the songs, it took a while. I might have took two
or three years to get the songs together. Recording it, I did about
half of it in a day. I was pretty quick about that. I don't waste
a whole lot of time in the studio, but sometimes it can take me
a while to collect all the songs that I think are right for the
record."

McGraw said
he is already hard at work on his sixth album.

"I've
released five independently and I'm always working on new material,"
the new country singer said. "I don't write everyday, but I
write whenever the inspiration hits if its 2 o'clock in the morning
or middle of the day. I will just set aside what I'm doing and write
a song. I guess I got enough material lined up to do another record
when we get around to it."

What's the
story behind your current single "Dollar Ain't Worth a Dime"?

"We
were really hitting the road hard summer before last and when gas
was almost $5 a gallon, we were making trips out west," he
said. "I'd come back from going from Nashville to Montana and
back and have absolutely no money after paying for my gas. I was
getting together with my co-writer on that song, David Kroll, and
he was asking how things were going on the road. Dude, if things
don't change, I'll start robbin banks to support this playing in
a band habit. We started talking about it. It would be cool to write
a song like Steve Earle would right about and try going on a crime
spree."

McGraw has
been touring the country with Eric Church and Josh Thompson on the
Jagermeister Country Tour.

"It's
been going awesome, we've had sell-out shows everywhere we went,"
the new country singer said. "I don't think there's a night
we went out yet that hasn't been a sold-out crowd. It's been awesome
playing for full houses. Eric's audiences really cozied up to my
fans. It's been great."

He will
perform along with Church and Thompson at the Royal Oak Music Theatre
on March 20.

"For
us, it's a pretty short set," McGraw said. "We do 20 to
25 minutes, but it's all high energy. We don't do anything that
isn't fast, uptempo and below the belt. We rock really hard. I think
we are a good set-up band for Josh Thompson and Eric."

The new
country singer said this will be his second time performing in the
metro Detroit area.

"We
did an afterparty for the Detroit Hoedown two years ago," he
said. "We have played in the area before. I don't think we
came that close. We toured with Toby Keith last year. I don't think
we were as close to Detroit. We played Kalamazoo and other areas
of Michigan before."

Where do
you expect to be in the next 10 years?

"We'd
really like to have a song on the charts and be actually touring
on a tour bus as supposed to doing it on a van," McGraw responded.
"At least we can accomplish that. If it ends up we can have
a hit song on the radio and start headlining, that would be awesome."

What would
be your advice to students who are graduating in music and looking
to break into the business?

"I
would say get a back up career, get good on a computer, that's what
my advice would be."